I AM not quite certain how it happened but all of the footy and netty finals are done and dusted.
Cricketers, tennis players and lawn bowlers have dusted off their gear in preparation for summer and some coastal strip cockies are already delivering this year's grain into the Port Pirie silos.
They say that it's a sure-fire sign of advancing years when time seems to just breeze past.
I think that instead of blaming age we should blame our insatiable desire to do things more rapidly. Time seems to have sped up to keep pace with our lifestyles.
Have a look at the average farmer's plant and you will see machinery not only designed to do tasks more efficiently, but much faster.
Cockies, in general, seem intent on finishing seeding inside a month. No-till farming processes and the advent of the aiseeder has made speed the king of agriculture.
I am often bemused by young blokes doing an all-night stint on the GPS-equipped, air-conditioned tractor and wonder how they would have fared in the not-too-distant past with a little old open-cab tractor pulling a combine around the paddock in ever-diminishing laps.
This is the time of year when most farmers are concentrating on putting a bit or a lot of hay away. Size, speed and ease have crept into this process and no longer do we see loads of small bales being ferried into the shed.
I've never come across anybody who has any nostalgic, romantic notions about the good old days of hay carting. Of course, there are plenty of tall tales about how many bales were carted in a day and plenty of snake stories, but not surprisingly, I've never heard anyone wish for a return to the days before big bales became part of normal farming practice.
Apparently, back-breaking work in usually sweltering heat does not appeal to many as a career path.
To describe modern headers as the single, most overpriced status symbol in the farming world would probably be inviting quite a few arguments from dedicated graingrowers.
However from the outside looking in, it is hard to imagine how cockies can justify such a huge investment for a piece of machinery that will generally do a maximum of four week's work a year.
In some areas, they are only used to reap seed for the next year and, in others, they don't even leave the shed in a bad year.
Thankfully, breeding and raising livestock hasn't changed much at all in comparison - a shearing shed, stockyards, ute and a dog, and you're in business.
Traditional sheep and cattle breeding methods have changed very little over centuries.
There has been some wonderful technical developments in the livestock world. The advent of artificial insemination and embryo transfer technology has improved seed stock genetics out of sight.
The emergence of feedlotting has meant that nutrition and feed regimes have become a far more important part of stock work, but the essence of breeding and feeding sheep and cattle on the average property is still a very traditional pursuit.
* Full report in Stock Journal, October 9, 2014 issue.